"Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab
people want to fight."

Gamel Abdel Nasser,
May 3oth 1967.

The Daily Telegraph Magazine, June 7 1968

Was it a bitter victory? A year ago Israel won a crushing victory
over the Arabs. It ensured Israel's survival, writes YAEL DAYAN. But what
now?

....
In order to understand June, 1968, we have to return to May, 1967. A year
ago I was in uniform with a division on the Egyptian border. We, in the
front, had no doubt as to the inevitability of war. We also knew we were
going to win it. We were not going to win because we were more numerous,
more battle-happy or more ambitious. We were going to win, at whatever cost,
because losing meant extermination. ...

These obvious facts should be remembered, simply because we were victorious.
When a David wins, he stops being David in a way, and his motives become
suspect. On June 5, 1967, we risked all we had.

...
The first few weeks after the war realised the most horrible of facts -
that war does not automatically terminate in a peace treaty. Please who
were sure this was going to be their last war were shocked to find that
a country that fought to obtain peace remained as far from it as before.

What did the war solve? It did not settle the basic conflict. It did not
make the Arabs admit our right to this country. It neither frightened them
into peace nor woke them up to the fact that we are here to stay...

The war, however, has secured our existence. The cartoons which show us
drowning in the sea hang in Israel homes while bikini-clad girls stretch
out on our beaches.... the Six Day War did not give us peace but it gave
us security and if we have to choose between them, we'd rather have security.

... We know we did it alone, we know that apart from the help of the Jews
in the Western world, we cannot count on others doing the job for us - be
it war or peace, and for once isolation does not mean brave suicide but
brave survival.

June 1967 did not solve the refugee problem, but it did expose it. It is
not a sociological problem, nor an economic, but a political one. The refugees
exists not because of us, because both East and West refuse to exercise
pressure to bring about resettlement in Arab and our territories, as this
would have to be part of an overall solution to co-existence in the area.

... The Arabs are not prepared to meet for peace talks and their armies
are reorganized, re-equipped and re-armed. Russia has infiltrated the Mediterranean
and hold the key to the renewal or cessation of war in the Middle East.

... It (the war) has revealed to us the predicament we are in, and will
continue to be in. That of lone people. Small people. A small nation - tragically
small - so that when it hurts, the whole body feels it. A predicament of
small people paying a daily price in order to exist - before, during and
after the war.

If you were not hit today, it may be tomorrow, but it is bound to happen
to you, your family, your friend, your child, a boyfriend, a father. If
the war has taught us something, it is what our lives are all about. We
are a people glued to the wireless set with anxiety, never free of the horrible
feeling that there is no foreseen end, that it isn't over, that every day
we may face it again, a permanent sacrifice to a hungry earth.

... We did not fight in order to gain land. But eh war has placed within
the new secure frontiers of Israel about a million Arabs. We are not liberators
of these areas, we are occupiers and we are faced with the profound moral
problems of an occupying power... we shall stay there until it is no longer
necessary for us to protect our lives and settlements... we leave them alone
as long as they don't co-operate with saboteurs.. we try to turn the Ex-Jordan
West Bank into a link between us and Jordan rather than vet a further barrier.

I believe in their right of self-determination. I believe in a Palestinian
State, federated with Jordan but demilitarized. Perhaps this is the next
step. If so, they will have to have the courage to declare it and approach
us with it... and to admit our right to exist. ... A great deal depends
on us, much also depends on them.

...
The war revealed that the UN is unable to cope with major conflicts. Its
forces were evacuated within a few hours of Nasser's demand for withdrawal
and the Security Council's verdict on clashes are nothing but headlines
in evening papers.

"Blown up by a mine"; "A tractor shot at", "A
school bus - two dad - three dead - two civilians - five soldiers - three
mines - mortar fire on kibbutzim" - our daily life. The war ended and
the terrorists took over. Backed fully by Jordan, Syria and Egypt, they
were successful for a while and the price again was high.

Our propaganda machine is slow and often useless and the world reacts
more to a napalm bomb thrown on a Jordanian army camp than to our school
bus blown up by a mine.

... If... people really cared for the future of the Palestinian Arabs
they would have known there is only one way to go about it - a peaceful
one. They could negotiate for a free Palestine, they could benefit from
peace and break away from Nasser, who cares very little for the well-being
of the Palestinians.. a real liberation front will have first to liberate
them in their own countries and then examine and see whether their interests
truly conflict with ours.

...
If our face is changed, it is only because security and peace did not prove
to be synonymous and we have chosen the first, are not offered the second,
and have to live with the results.

We have made every effort to give full accreditation and endeavoured to ensure
that copyright has been respected. If you feel that your copyright has been
infringed by any material here please advise us and we will immediately
remove it.